Monday, January 25, 2010

Batch MS DOS ASCII to Web Converter Script 2

This is an update to my  little script that converts MS DOS ASCII files, such as NFO's  or FILE_ID.DIZ text files (Code Page 437, USA) to ASCII files with HTML encoded Unicode characters and also to Unicode text for the use in MS Windows. The HTML encoded ASCII files can be used to display the ASCII art, specifically the "High ASCII" or block ASCII art on a web site. The script is written in VBScript, but the release package also includes a Windows executable, which is the VBScript converted via VBSEdit by Adersoft.

I used the same script to prepare the ASCIIs in my text art galleries on my web site, such as:

just to name a few.

You can download the script here:   ROY-BATCHCONVERT-ASCII2WEB2.ZIP (700KB)

The Release NFO File :)




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█ █ ▀▀▄▄ ▄███▀ Roy<SAC>
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Roy/SAC presents

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▓ Batch ASCII to Web File Converter 2 ▓
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A little script that converts MS DOS ASCII files, such as NFO's
or FILE_ID.DIZ text files (Code Page 437, USA) to ASCII
but HTML encoded files that can be used to display the ASCII
art, specifically the "High ASCII" or block ASCII art on a
web site or to Unicode Text files for the use in Windows Apps.


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·R·E·L·.· ▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▀▀▀▀▀▀███ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀███ █ ███ ▀ ███ ▄▄▄▄ ▄ ·2·0·1·0·
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For example the small logo above (which is in DOS ASCII Format)
would be converted to the following;


&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;
&#9604; &#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604; &#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604;
&#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604; &#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604;
&#9604;&#9604;&#9604; &#9604; &#9604;&#9604;&#9604; &#9604; &#9604;&#9604;
&#9604; &#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604; &#9604; &#9472;&#9472;&#9472;
&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472;&#9472; &middot;R&middot;E&middot;L
&middot;.&middot; &#9604; &#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604; &#9600;&#9600;&#9600;
&#9600;&#9600;&#9600;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608; &#9600;&#9600;&#9600;&#9600;
&#9600;&#9600;&#9600;&#9600;&#9608;&#9608;&#9608; &#9608; &#9608;&#9608;
&#9608; &#9600; &#9608;&#9608;&#9608; &#9604;&#9604;&#9604;&#9604; &#9604;
&middot;2&middot;0&middot;1&middot;0&middot; ...


Note: I manually added line breaks and spaces to the example for
NFO layout reasons and it is also not the entire logo.
I included the files roy.asc and roy.web as examples also.
The file Roy.TXT contains the same example for the conversion to
Unicode text result.


The Web Encoded ASCII does not include <BR> Tags for the line–breaks
You have to add those manually or do what I do on my web site and
enclose the code in <PRE> </PRE> tags, which preserves the line–breaks
within the enclosed text.

Since the result is Unicode and not DOS ASCII anymore, you can
use any monospace font to display the ASCII somewhat correctly.
You won't get a 100% acurate result anyway, because the old
MS DOS font set is not part of Windows anymore. What you can get
is only a close aproximation. I use on my web site the font
"Lucida Console", which seems to be installed on many machines.
If the Windows of the user who visits your page with the ASCII for
example does not have that font installed, Windows will automatically
pick another font that comes close. I use the following CSS formatting
for the PRE tags where I show ASCIIs.

pre {
background–color:#000;
color:#FFF;
display:block;
font–family:"Lucida Console", monospace;
font–size:9pt;
line–height:12px;
padding:10px;
text–align:left;
}

If the PRE Tag is also used for something else on your web site
then you can also define it for a specific class selector like


pre.asciiart {
...
}

You would then also have to extend the PRE HTML tag like this:

<PRE class=asciiart>
...
</PRE>

The script is designed to convert all files with a specified
extension (.ASC by default) to web ready files with a new
extension (.WEB by default, but you could also make it .HTML or
whatever).

There are two additional options, where I recommend
to use the defaults (which is "yes").

The first option is "HTML Encode?", which means that all non–US–ASCII
characters (the 7 bit ASCII codes) will be converted to HTML codes
like &#XXX;. Also standard ASCII characters that could be misinterpreted
by HTML or DHTML and XML are also encoded, like the " becomes &quot;,
& becomes &amp;, < becomes &lt; and > becomes &gt; etc.
If you select "No", the ASCII will be converted to Windows Unicode (UTF–8)
instead.


The second one is "Sanitize?"
What that does, is removing ASCII characters with an ASCII code
smaller than 32, which are special control characters that cannot
be printed anyway, with 3 exceptions, chr(10) = line–feed,
chr(13) = cariage–return and chr(9) = tab. LF and CR remain unchanged.
Tab characters will be converted to 8 spaces, which is the default
MS DOS tab–stop. You might not want to select "Yes", if you convert
ASCII files to Windows Unicode, but you could, if you like.


Part of this package is the image "Batch–ASCII2WebOrUniCode–Steps.jpg",
which shows screenshots of all the steps where the script goes through.

Enjoy!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

p.s. This script is freeware. Do with it whatever you like, except
selling it. You can use it free, copy it, share it, even modify it
if you like to. You are using it at your own risk. You cannot make me
liable for any damage or loss of data that might results directly
or indirectly because of the use of my script.

p.s.2 I also included a very early beta of a HTA version of the tool
with an interface. The conversion from Unicode to ASCII is not supported
by the HTA application yet and the file selector uses MS Word and might
not work, if you don't have Office installed. Since the latest security
updates for Windows XP as well as Vista and Windows 7, the drag and drop
feature also stopped working unfortunately.

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You can either execute the VBS script file (which is the source code
and should be executed by WSCRIPT.EXE, which comes with Windows) or
run the EXE file. The EXE is just the VBScript converted to an
executable via VBSEdit by Adersoft.

Also check out my little intro "RoySAC.exe" :)

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Defacto2.net, Scene.org, Textfiles.com, Pouet.net
Demoscene.tv, GfxZone, Intro Inferno, C64.org, OSDM,
AMP, Edge, Sizteen Colors, Flashtro, Old–Skool.net,
Untergrund.net, Bitfellas, Exotica and everybody else who
works on preserving the rich history of the scene and makes
it accessible for future generations to enjoy.

Group Greetings:
Blocktronix (thanks for keeping the ANSI scene alive and kickin)
CPI (Oldskool forver!)
Andomeda Software Development (Your demos rock! Period!)

Personal Greetings to:
Madmax/CPI, Peace/Testaware, Smash/Fairlight, Shamen/Dytec,
DaLezy, Dipswitch, Mandibular Joint Dysfunction, RaD Man/ACiD,
Jason Scott/Textfiles.com, Ben Garrett/Defacto2, my blog readers,
Lord Scarlet/SixteenColors, Zerovision/Blocktronics and everybody
else I know and forgot to mention :)

For a full list of greetings, check out my Intro, which is
included with this release.

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Check out the intro in this release "RoySACIntro.exe" :)

and don't forget visiting http://www.RoySAC.com
and to check out my blog at http://www.roysac.com/blog

Additional URLs you might want to check out

Over 300 demos, cracktros and other scene related videos
http://www.youtube.com/sacreleases

Scene Images of all sorts
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cumbrowski/collections/72157611288618058/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cumbrowski/collections/72157612320706642/

My Mediafire.com file share with tons of files to download!
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=b570d9e07985879c7069484bded33bcd06b0971baa3373fa

My ASCII Art Academy to learn more about classic Text Art
http://www.roysac.com/learn/

Links to other useful resources online to learn more about the scene
http://www.roysac.com/roy_links.asp

Signing off!

Roy of Superior Art Creations, CPI, Dytec,
Razor 1911, TRSI, TDU–Jam, PNS

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You can download the script here:   ROY-BATCHCONVERT-ASCII2WEB2.ZIP (700 KB)

Batch-ASCII2WebOrUniCode-Steps

You can download the script here:   ROY-BATCHCONVERT-ASCII2WEB2.ZIP (700 KB)

Enjoy!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC

PS. This script is freeware. Do with it whatever you like, except selling it. You can use it free, copy it, share it, even modify it if you like to. You are using it at your own risk. You cannot make me liable for any damage or loss of data that might results directly or indirectly because of the use of my script.

BatchASCII2WebBeforeAfter6

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Scene Logos Collection January 2010 Update

I posted the last update of my scene logos collection in August 2009.

I thought that is time to actually release another one. There are several reasons for it. First, the last update included many logos that were not sorted away properly and simply dumped into the sub folder by first letter instead of the logo with the title of the group or production. I also de-duped several hundred logos using a modified version of my own De-Dupe script. The biggest change of all is the addition of some archive support scripts. More about those in a moment.

LogoColCollage[1]

I also stopped the assignment of version numbers or volumes to this collection. The last update was called volume 2, which would make this one volume 3. But this sucks and does not tell you anything about the release really, so I started using the Month+Year to indicate its age and last release update date.

Your Contributions / Help is Wanted

Also new is the addition of 20+ folders for groups where you can only find a text file, but no logos. Those are groups where I know about the group and are pretty sure that there exist logos for them out there somewhere, but wasn’t able to manage to get my hands on those. The text file includes a short note and a link to my contact page with the request to send me logos for those groups, if you happen to have any of them. The same invitation can be extended to all other groups too, including groups where I already have many logos or groups where I did not create a folder already and do not have any logos at all yet. You can send images to my email or drop them off at my file-drop box at Mediafire.com. Detailed information to all those options are available at my contact page.

The new release of my collection contains over 10,000 Images for over 2,00 Groups, BBS, Demos and more from the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari and PC Demo- and Warez Scenes.

About the Collection

The collection contains thousands of logos for groups, demos, bulletin board systems, web sites and individuals from all the major scene platforms, including Windows PC (Super VGA, Hi-Res), old MS DOS standard VGA PCs         (320x200 256 Colors), Commodore Amiga’s (32 Colors), Commodore 64s (8Bit), Apple IIs (8Bit), CPCs (8Bit), Atari 8Bit Home Computers, Atari STs and Atari Falcons.

Why is De-Duping So Hard?

Despite my de-duping via my own tools, there are still a lot of duplicates, which I am working on constantly eliminating (or at least reducing). Here is an explanation for why it is so difficult.

It is not that easy, because it is not always clear, which is the best or authentic original to keep and which version to delete (once you detected a duplicate visually, which by itself takes already a lot of time).

If I have a PNG or GIF version and another JPG version of an image,then it is clear which one I should keep, but if I have a PNG and a GIF or 2x GIF or 2x PNG or only 2x JPG etc. then it is not that easy anymore. The last thing I want to do is deleting an authentic logo and keep the one that was altered by image compression or by hand (resized etc.). My credo is: "Better 5 Dupes than not at all!". I hope you agree with me on that one.

The Archive System

The logos are sorted alphabetically. There are the following root folders: Folders for the letters A-Z (such as "Logos A"), "Logos 0-9", "Cannot_Read" (for logos that I cannot de-cipher and thus not sort away yet), "ArchiveTools" (see notes below). For each name/title exists a sub directory below the appropriate root folder, such as "2000 AD" below "Logos 0-9".

Archive Scripts

The folder "ArchiveTools" contains a bunch of BAT, MS DOS batch scripts and VBS - VBScript scripts. Typically you only need to run the script(s) once, after you extracted the collection to the final location on your hard disk or network share.  

One script removes the system files "thumbs.db" and "desktop.ini" that might have been created in  folders by your Windows OS automatically. It also removes short cuts (*.lnk files), which should not be there yet, if you just unpacked the collection. It then goes ahead to remove any empty sub folders below the logos collection main root.

Short Cuts Creation Script

Another script creates short cuts. There are two kinds of short cuts being created. Manually defined ones and auto-generated ones.

Manual Short Cuts

The manually defined ones are specified in the file "CrossLinkList.txt". There are only a few ones, because the reasons for those scenarios were typically rare exceptions. In those cases the script also creates a new sub folder to place the short cut in, what it is not doing for the auto-generated ones. Let me explain this via a specific example.

The Amiga group with it's official name "The Silents", which is abbreviated "TSL", is also known simply as "Silents". People might look for logos under "Logos S" instead of "Logos T", where they actually reside. In this case the script creates a folder "Silents" under "Logos S" and adds a short cut there the actual folder location, where the images can be found, which is "Logos T\The Silents (TSL)\".

Auto-Generated Short Cuts

Automatic shortcuts are generated for the abbreviations of titles and group names. No extra folder is created, the short cuts are simply created directly beneath the "Logos *" folders where the actual folder with the full name of the group also exists.

For example the folder "Tristar & Red Sector Inc. (TRSI)", located under "Logos T". The script creates a short cut "TRSI - Tristar & Red Sector Inc." in the folder "Logos T", which points to the actual file folder. This makes it easy to find the right group/title folder, if you only know the abbreviation, but not the full title of something.

I hope this makes sense and that you find this addition of mine useful.

The Release Files

The collection is close to 300 MB in size and was split up into 4 archives for download and distribution via other web sites, torrents, ftp servers, Usenet or direct copies made by one friend for another. The files can be found at my Collections Folder at Mediafire.com.

  1. ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN1.ZIP (96 MB)
  2. ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN2.ZIP (96 MB)
  3. ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN3.ZIP (96 MB)
  4. ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN4.ZIP  (3 MB)

I did not add direct download links to the files, because I want you to browse my Collections Folder share at Mediafire.com to make sure that download the latest version of my collection. There might be another update available by the time you read this blog post of mine one day in the distant future.

Other Downloads Added

Next to the various collections that I put out and made available for public download, other sceners and preservationists of the scene legacy are doing the same. I added to the download page on my site a list of links to downloads of collections by some of those folks. The collections vary in type and size. I included tracker mod collections, C64 SID music archives, Cracktros, BBS ads, NFO files collections and much more great stuff.

Check out this new Collection Downloads Section at RoySAC.com.

Enjoy and Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

SAC Misunderstandings Cleared and Differences Settled

I drafted this blog post on January 13th already, but wanted Scour to review it first. He did not respond to my emails and I wasn’t able to catch him on IRC either. He got the text though. A chat with Barium on IRC on January 14th indicated that Scour got the draft. Communication is definitively something we need to improve on a lot, but then this post is about the lack of it anyway. :) Today is January 23, 2010 and I decided to publish the post and assume that Scours silence is to be understood as an approval of my write-up. It’s something positive after all. I was more concerned that I missed something from out long conversation, but I am now getting ahead of things. Let’s start from the beginning:

W0-SAC_HASDFFFFF Flashback

The year 2009 finished good and bad. It saw the release of the first Superior Art Creations art package in over 2.5 years, show-casing high quality art by talented artists. Unfortunately this great event was overshadowed by things that happened in the background and dragged intro the open by writing things into the release NFO file of the pack that probably should never be written. Written words can all to easy be misinterpreted entirely. I know this very well from personal experience through my blogging. The things stated in the NFO were bad, but most of it was written under false or incomplete assumptions. I wasn’t innocent either, because I also assumed things that did not happen or were not true. This chain of misunderstandings and false assumptions leads to disaster and Scour und myself did seek each other out to talk with each other before things get really bad und won’t be of any help to anybody of us.

On January 12, 2010 I installed a trial version of MIRC and connected for the first time in several years to the IRC. I think that I mentioned in other occasions already why I am avoiding IRC on purpose. It has nothing to do with the people, but the amount of time that I used to spend and for a large part wasted many years ago on EFNet. I should have pay a visit once in a while though, because this could have prevented things like the ones that just happened.

Voice Chat

Anyhow; Scour was online and I told him that a chat will not do it and probably lead to more misunderstandings. Text does not transmit emotions very well and smileys are also a poor substitute for the real deal. So we hooked up via Skype and had a very long conversation about the past, present, SAC, our life’s, the scene in general etc.

What became clear quickly was the fact that we shared the same fundamental goals and also cared deeply about the group Superior Art Creations. Once this was realized, it became clear that any petty differences that might stand between us must and can be overcome in order to accomplish our higher common goal.

False assumptions and incorrect facts also became apparent quickly and events were viewed differently by both of us, once we got all the relevant facts straight. All the false assumptions combined with a bad day and the last minute stress to rush out the release on time as promised resulted in the choice of words that were regret afterwards, but cannot be retracted unfortunately. But apologies were made, by both of us actually.

Where Communication Went Wrong Badly

we_will_be_the_bomb

When it came to the present and future of SAC, things also became clear. The assumed conflict was not there. I, Roy have neither interest nor the time to run an active art group, but are strongly interested in the preservation of it’s past and legacy. I believed that the Pack #36 was supposed to be “retro” or “remembrance” pack to celebrate the old times and allow former and retired SAC members to release the little bit of artwork that most produced over the years even though they were retired, like I did myself. The text in my intro design for the pack, using the hated OSDM attests to that. Shocking as it may sound to some, for the SAC Pack #36 that I believed it to be, using an OSDM intro to go along with it would have been perfectly fine. But SAC Pack #36 was not supposed to be a “remembrance” pack to whine after the long gone glory days of the past.

Scour worked behind the scenes (from my point of view) to revive the group entirely and actively. No reunion of old men, but the coming together of a young and motivated crowd to take SAC once more a notch higher in the scene and fight for the top position in today’s art scene. BIG DIFFERENCE! Would an OSDM intro okay under such circumstances? Heck no! Also some of my work that only reached Scour on the last day before the pack release through several detours and not directly from my email as I had assumed, would not have been appropriate of the pack that Scour had in mind. We talked about how to incorporate retro stuff in new SAC Pack releases to pay tribute to the past and also to allow retired SAC members who get requests for specific art today, namely old fashioned art that they did when they were active, to release under the SAC label und not anywhere else. Many long time members and also I were always SAC and only SAC. I don’t want or need a new group to publish once in a while the little bit of stuff that I do, when it itches me. Details how this will be accomplished are still debated, but a solution will be found, because we want to.

SAC Web Site

Since I did and are also still willing to do more work on a Superior Art Creations official web site, I will continue with those efforts and now also get some help from active SAC members. Next to the history also some new stuff could be added to such a web site where it makes sense. The location at RoySAC.com was never meant to be the “Home” for the group. I stated that already multiple times on the site itself and elsewhere. Where the home will finally be, is not decided yet, but SuperiorArtCreations.com seems to be a good and logical choice, since we have already everything in place to rebuild the SAC Homepage under this URL, domain ownership etc.

To make it more clear, although I said it already. I, Roy am not interested in running the affairs and the group today. Scour is eager to do this job and I don’t envy him, because I know how hard and time consuming this task is (not to mention “nerve wrecking” hehe).

The Outlook

We are now looking forward to work together on our joined goals. We also know how to reach each other now and I hope that we will be able to meet each other in person when Scour is able to make it to California for some other reason in February, which is next month. That would be really nice and definitely worth for me to make this trip down to the greater L.A. area to see each other face to face.

I am posting this in collaboration with Scour to make sure that nothing was missed or maybe written in a way that could be misinterpreted and cause new problems again.

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC (Former Leader, Retired) and Scour/SAC (Active Leader)  - 1994-2010+

Quick Update Note by Roy:

I added SAC Art Pack #36 to the Superior Art Creations Art Packs Releases page, where you can also find a link to download the release ZIP file from a server that I control  (to make sure that the link does not go bad any day soon). Its content can like the previous pack releases be browsed online. Browse SAC Pack #36 now! I also added the new artists to make sure that they appear properly on the artists browse page. Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

McAfee Security Center and Issues with AntiVirus Solutions in General

I am using McAfee Security Suite and are very unhappy with it. I was contacting support and also expressed my issues at their user support forums. I got responses back from other users and learned that there are currently no real solutions for the fundamental issues that I encountered.

See my McAfee Support Forum Posts:

I could not believe this and started to get really frustrated. I am looking for a long time for proper Anti virus and anti spyware solutions for my personal and professional use in my home network, but got disappointed with everything I tried so far. That the anti-virus software industry is in such a bad shape, which got only worse over the last years, I refused to believe at first. But then people contacted me privately and we exchanged some tips and experiences and it seemed that there was no other way around than facing reality.

mcafee-unsecure-logoLast years final issue of the German computer magazine CT (Magazin Computer Technik Issue 26/2009) by publisher Heise included a review of the 2010 versions of the Anti-Virus software solutions AVG Anti-Virus Professional 9.0, Bitdefender Antivirus 2010, Bullguard Internet Security 8.7, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010, McAfee AntiVirus plus 2010, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norton AntiVirus 2010 and PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus and ThreadFire.

I am still a subscriber to the magazine (the print version), even here in California, because nothing I have seen here in English comes even close to the quality and depth of CT. It would be like comparing Notepad with MS Word or MS Paint with Adobe Photoshop. There is unfortunately no English version of the magazine, which I feel very sorry about and for you, if you don’t speak German.

The tests revealed already what I had feared, but more so did the editorial of that issue, which was about the state of Anti-Virus software, written in a narrative and funny way to cope with the actual sadness of things in this industry. It is titled “Protection for Others” and was written by Gerald Himmelein. I am posting a translation of this editorial here. The original German version can be accessed online and in PDF format from this page at the Heise.de web site. This editorial sums up my own experiences and frustrations perfectly.

ctmag Protection for Others

by Gerald Himmelein - Editorial for CT Magazin 26/2009 from December 2009

On an IT conference somebody invited me to check out the beta version of a program, accompanied by a nice female opinion researcher. Basically, i found the application okay although for me personally it lacked some features. Immediately several people came into my mind, who would get along with it pretty well.

When I said that the smile in the opinion researcher’s face briefly froze. After we were done, she explained somewhat frustrated that she was hearing this phrase over and over. At the end, the program never hit the market: nobody wanted to use it, all wanted it simply press it on to somebody.

This incident came intro my mind during the Anti-Virus Scanner tests (from page 98). For each test object I instantly knew somebody who would be a perfect fit for the solution. For some of the programs people came to mind that I did not like very much. Certain providers seem to want to punish their users for the legitimate purchase of their product.

Seen several times: The scanner locks away a harmless program without asking into the quarantine.
Just when you fought back its freedom (Do you really don't want to abort?"), the background guard hits and kicks the just restored file back into its prison cell. Even the best performance can not make up for this.

Also nice: a few scanners make a big fuss if they find the tracking cookies that were swallowed by the web browser as if they had just detected extreme dangerous malware. If one day a real threat comes along, the user probably only responds shrugging one's shoulders: Can't be so bad. Desensitization through Hysteria.

Every single or last one of the virus-protectors cares a great deal that the user will notice how super-active he is being protected because of them. Details are held back, such as the age of the virus definition. If the scanner gives an alert, he disguises the true nature of the threat with cryptic abbreviations, which remain unexplained for the most part. "Trojan" is used as generic classification, for malicious key-loggers as also for completely harmless PC-Demos.

After finishing the tests of the current generation of scanners, I remain hesitant towards the decision, on which of those "horses" I should bet on privately. Without a "condom" into the Internet isn't a solution either.

If we should bump into each other one day, you rather don't ask me which virus scanner you should use. If I am in a good mood, I will only look at you unhappy. If I am in a bad mood, I might get myself to actually make a (poor) recommendation. I might suggest to get a Mac instead.

The Editorial depicts exactly the behavior of McAfee’s AntiVirus solution, but I also used other software solutions in the past myself and encountered similar issues, just not as bad yet ad with McAfee. With McAfee several tools that I frequently use ended up in the quarantine without a white-list option.  

Still no news from McAfee. I am still completely irritated at this lack of fundamental features and could not believe that I am dealing here with the same company whose products were the first anti-virus software I knew about and used for year (1991-2000). I then used various corporate versions of other anti-virus software, including Kaspersky, through my former Employers. I got self employed in 2007 and looking for a good anti-virus/spyware solution for my personal/business home network ever since.

malware I wasted money any several solutions and stopped shopping around for the moment. I won't touch Norton Anti-Virus by Symantec unless they turned around to become as good as McAfee appears to have gone bad.

I used to be happy with Spybot S&D in combination with the old Microsoft Defender (while it was still in beta and not a "full product package"), but both of those products turned sour a couple years ago.

I had Avira, which sucked. The default settings of their full protection suite basically removed the machine from the network, including the home network, not to mention the internet and impossible to configure properly, even for somebody who actually knows more about computers than the average user. It also sucked the life out of the machine while it was running in the background.

PC Tools Anti Spyware + Anti Virus was okay and did not eat up too much resources. You could also exclude stuff, like video files (based on extensions) or even specific files by path and file name.

However, I don't trust it to be as up to date as it could and should be. It can also be rendered disabled by an attacker too easily. I experienced this first hand, when I literally saw how a Trojan infected the machine and finished it off in no-time. It saw the attack, wasn't able to block it. Claimed that it caught and removed it and then kept silence ever after, even when I knew that the machine was not cleaned properly. Super Antispyware together with Spybot S&D and some help finished it off eventually.

I still use Super Antispyware (free Version) as a once in a while full system scanner/double checker, but don't use the real-time protection of it.

LavaSoft Pro used to be the king of the Anti-Spyware/AdWare removers and blockers, but their once slim and efficient shareware tool also turned big-business and that was the end of it.

Who is left to check? Sophos? Trend Micro and Kaspersky I guess. Kaspersky has a good reputation, but I have not checked out their offers yet. I have seen too much good turn bad that I am reluctant to waste time and money once more on things that have little to do with what I do to make a living (using a computer).

Poorly designed user interfaces that are hard to use, too little transparency and information given to the user to be able to make a conscious and educated decision, combined with varying results regarding detecting threats that miss as much real threats entirely as they have false positives. Things went from bad to worse with little improvements by some providers in a few areas, but too little. In the article with the tests itself, CT also could not make a honest recommendation for any product that they tested (so the joking in the Editorial was not a joke after all). Finding the right combination is currently the only way to go at the moment; nothing easy to do.   

Things got harder for the protection and scanner tools, certainly. They know that they are currently losing a war, so they should be a bit more helpful with providing users with as much and specific information, options and suggestions and also tools that the user himself can make the final calls at the end of the day. They go into the complete opposite direction instead and play the "risk management" game by numbers and odds calculated against the cost of development versus possible loss in revenue. I don't gamble and don't want to gamble.

I am always open to hear new ideas, recommendations and options, if you have any, let me know in the comments below. I’d appreciate it.

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Note on the Side: I uninstalled McAfee from my computer a few days ago, because I had it with them. I had it more OFF than on to prevent that it quarantines programs that are not infected that I happen to use every now and then. It didn’t learn to do better and I also could not white list. Add to that all the other short-comings and it became clear that one had to go.

Well,  McAfee does not help me to do my work and earn a living, but some of the tools it removed from my HD do. I reinstalled PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus for the time being. My subscription there is still good for another 2 1/2 months. But I am not really happy with them either, but it is better than using nothing at all :(.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Tale About A Group Called Superior Art Creations

The recent unfortunate events surrounding SAC were not only a surprise for me and a disappointment, but also caused me to stand back for a little and reflect on what happened over the past 16 years when a friend of mine and me started the group 16+ years ago. I did not plan to write as much in detail about stuff as I ended up eventually, but what is new? Hehe. Yes, this tale is written in a personal narrative and describes things the way I experienced them and remember today. This means that it is probably full of errors and bias’ that I might or might not was aware of.

I already wrote about how I got started with creating art. You can read all about it here.

How it Started

I co-founded SAC in December 1994 together with Hetero, whom I had just met in person for the first time a couple weeks earlier. I discussed with him the lack of a German art group and also the lack of an art group that has closer ties to the Warez scene. At that time the requests that I received just for NFO file logos and designs increased significantly. Instead of sitting around and just whining about those facts, we decided to start something. He and I knew some other local artists who were “independent” at the time. We asked them if they would join a local art group and that’s how it all started. The name for the group was my idea. I wanted a name that can be abbreviated to 3 letters that also sound cool. 3 Letters, because of the possible use as a file extension (EG. ICE used to do it for their ANSIS)

 


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░░ ▀███▄▄██ ▄ ▄████▄██ ░ ▓███▀ ▓█▄▄▓██▀ ░░ HETERO
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· ·· S· U P ·E R I· O··R A R T · C R E A ·T I· O· N S ·· ·
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Members of the First Hour, First Pack


The first members were Toxic Trancer, a musician, Dream Design, a gifted pixel artist active primarily on the Commodore Amiga for a group called Remedy at the time, Kaethe, a local female ANSI artist and Wife of the sysop of a local pirate board called “Mystery”, Hetero as Coder and ASCII/ANSI/Pixel Artist and me, as ANSI/ASCII/VGA Artist and Sysop of the World HQ for the group. I had started my own BBS in Spring that year.

Almost the entire crew planned to go together to The Party 1994 demo party in Herning, Denmark, so we thought that this is a good place and time to  release our very first art pack and introduce us to the world.

It was clear pretty early on that I was taking on the main responsibilities for managing the group. This made not just sense, because I also happened to run the WHQ of the group, but also because I seemed to have the required skills for this kind of job, which I performed for other groups beyond SAC also throughout my active scene years.

What SAC Was Not


We did not want to be German or European answer to the major US art groups like ACiD, iCE and the countless others which emulated the leading groups pretty much. We were focused on the pirate scene, which means that our recruitment efforts happened naturally among folks who were also active in Warez release groups. We also did not want to pressure ourselves to crank out an art pack release every month. We did not intend to compete with all those other groups. However, without some plan or goals, you won’t get anything done. So we decided to release quarterly packs with a fix release date, to have always the next goal in sight, but at the same time don’t pressure any of us too much to produce stuff for the packs. It should be possible for anybody who is even only somewhat active to get something done within 3 months, right? That was the thought.

Artists were working pretty much independent and took requests by themselves and also decided if they want to take a job or not. Only some projects required closer collaboration between multiple members, such as crack intro productions for the various release groups where somebody of us was a member of or had some buddies who called in a favor. There were attempts to establish some sort of centralized “requests” taking and distribution system that passes down art requests to available artists with the required skills, but they never went anywhere.

Global Expansion


SAC remained a relative democratic structured group that provided an outlet for pirate sceners with artistic talents to publish and promote their art work produced. This was especially beneficial for young and still unknown artists as an efficient method to get their name out. With the increasing popularity and fame of SAC as an art group in its own right, applications increased. Even more so once we did the jump into the internet and opened the #SAC IRC channel on the EFNet. The move into the Internet also transformed the group from a mainly local group with its largest member base in Berlin, Germany with some artists here and there in Germany to become a truly international group. The artwork produced before that was already international, but the members in the group itself were not.

Dealing with Applications to Join the Group


In the past most SAC members became part of the group, because somebody in the group noticed them and their work and asked them, if they would like to join. Nobody was doing this all on his own of course. Typically mails were sent on my BBS to the other members and sample artwork was uploaded to show the rest of the clique what they think. That was not a problem while we were only a few guys. It became one, when the group suddenly expanded quickly and at the same time applications of artists seeking us out exploded.

Not every new member was really that much interested in things like thinking about another artist and if he would be a good fit for the group. So decisions about some applications were not made for a long time, because we were waiting for the opinion of several l SAC members about a particular artist, which they never expressed. So a voting system was establish, where every member in SAC was able to cast his vote, his YAH or NAY to any artist application, if the member chooses to make use of this right. If nobody voted for a new applicant for some weeks anymore, the polls were closed and counted. Every vote counted equal, including mine and Hetero’s.

This system also became increasingly difficult, because it required members to call my BBS in Berlin frequently or some member had to try to catch a member of the group on IRC and send him the latest applications to cast votes. Blue Boxing and Calling Cards were pretty much dead and long distance calls by members to the WHQ an unacceptable burden. And with all things that grow bigger beyond a certain point, keeping everybody together becomes also impossible. It also becomes the time when parasites take advantage of the group, trying to join making promises and coming up with grandiose ideas, but never actually doing something, including not producing any art work. For the first time members had to be kicked out of the group, rather than leave it, almost always because the member left the scene or got into other projects that SAC wasn’t able to support at the time (e.g. Some of the musicians left to produce “real music” when MP3s just appeared but not wide spread and okay to include in an art package. Any pack over 2 MB was considered “large” back then.

Membership Levels in a Democracy?!


It became somewhat the rule that somebody who wants to explore other things for any reason, knowing that he cannot contribute to the group with it at the same time, would come forward and “retire'” from the active membership in SAC. Nobody saw any benefit of having a bloated up membership list, if only a fraction of those members would actually be represented by at least one piece of art in SAC pack release every quarter. Several of the members who retired, decided one day that they want to become active again and joined the group with full member status restored. I do not remember any case where somebody was rejected who retired himself from the group previously. To deal with those flaky kind of members who joined and then stopped doing anything without retiring on their own, something had to be done. The answer was to introduce some sort of hierarchy to the group, which was not a chain of command like hierarchy, but a way to express seniority and amount of contribution to the group. New members joined as “trial members”. After a pack or two, the trial was over, if the artist contributed to the art packs during this time. After even longer active membership, the status changed to “senior member”. Trial members saw a much larger fluctuation and were in many cases also just the type of members that were kicked out versus left by themselves.

The Scene Changed


At the end of 1997 things changed. The Internet changed the scene a lot, for the better and unfortunately also for the worse. A lot of idiots and jerks seemed to got access to what used to be a relatively small and easy to keep track of bunch of folks who were bound by common motivations, interests and goals and for the most part also similar ethics and universally accepted rules of conduct.

I was not so happy anymore and did not like the direction where things seemed to be heading at that time. Towards the end of 1997 and beginning of 1998, I started to quit member and even leader ship and senior positions in various release groups, some of which I helped founding and growing myself. I left Dynasty, Backlash and Razor 1911. I still continued with SAC and also Peanuts (the former SAC PPE section), focusing more on the demo scene and the development of free tools for other sysops. A slow retreat from the pirate scene was underway and plans were made to move my pirate BBS from the underground to the light of day. I had already purchased licenses for the BBS software months earlier when suddenly in 1997, the Berlin State Police raided my place and I got busted. I was trying to find the paperwork from this, but it must be buried somewhere and I don’t remember when exactly the bust happened. Sorry. I will update this post when I figure it out. I wrote about the experience of the bust itself on my web site, if you would like to learn more about it.

I got eventually fined in 1998, but already got my personal PC back since it had virtually no pirated software on it and was also not used for the BBS, which was the reason for my bust. Since I already bought a new PC shortly after my other ones were seized, I had two computers again, also ISDN cards and a modem, licensed BBS software and OS/2 Warp operating system to re-launch my BBS now as public demo scene board right from the get go. But it was already late 1998. I was drafted into the German army in January 1998, out of  a full paid job, on only of a fraction of my jobs income and not covering any of my expenses to run the BBS. Every day I was in the army to serve my mandatory military service, I lost money. At the same time callers dried up for any BBS anywhere in the world. The Internet had already won, even if some sysops did not want it to be true and tried hard to keep their BBS alive. I shut it down one day and cannot even remember on what day that actually happened.

Meanwhile I was fighting a “cold war” with the German Army. I also got my court appointment because of my BBS while I was in the army. I got a fine and the BBS hardware that the police seized was kept as punishment for what I did. It wasn’t illegal when I started with this stuff, became somewhat not okay, but ignored later, to become illegal eventually with the BSA and other entities trying to fight back and make examples of as many of the pirates as they could. German laws shielded me from this at that time, fortunately. The court noticed the complete lack of selfish and financial motives for what I was doing and decided that it would not be of the states interest to make me to a criminal with all its far reaching consequences. I ended up with the equivalent of a very expensive speeding ticket and community work in form of a monetary donation to a charity of my own choosing.

This also meant that the software companies could not come after me because of it. Something that some of my American buddies were not so lucky with, unfortunately.

I was working after I finished military service for a couple months as a business consultant in a different city and living in hotels 5 out of 7 days of the week. I knew already when I started with this project that I would leave the company and Germany altogether when my current assignment will be over. I made that a condition for taking the offer of the foreign company, that I will not abandon a limited term project where it would be very hard to replace me, if I just leave them behind. In March 1999 the project was done and I flew in April 1999, one day after my 25th birthday to Switzerland.

On the Road


There I lived only for a year. I knew that from the start, because the position they hired me originally for was in the United States. The time in Switzerland was primarily for the company to test me and to check if I am the right guy for the job and also gave them time to get the required work visa for me to move to the United States. The main office in Switzerland was in St. Gallen. I only rented a studio there, nothing big and put most of my stuff that I did not want and could take to Switzerland into storage in Germany. I also ended up living 5 days out of 7 in a hotel at the other end of Switzerland in Basel to work on a lucrative assignment for the Pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann La Roche. It became increasingly hard for me to do any serious management of Superior Art Creations. That things did not work too well is clearly visible at the release dates of SAC packs at the time. The quarterly release date was missed ever more frequent.

Organizing and “Leading” a group is a lot of work. More work than most folks can imagine. Anybody who tried it will agree with me on this one. It is funny, I always got the feeling as if nothing would get done if it would not be for a few stupid idiots who try to get their buddies on track with a goal and focused, holding their hands, yell or grow gray hair until the next goal was finally reached, just to be replaced by the next one (e.g. next release). Taking on responsibilities on their own, planning and focusing on something specific, short term, but part of a larger picture, seems to be a trait that the majority of people apparently lack.  

Handing Over Responsibility for the Group


I decided to do the only right thing that I could think of, which was handling over responsibility to somebody else. I did that while I was in Switzerland. The person I chose was Ferrex. I remained in the NFO file for a bit longer and also contributed to a pack with a few things once in a while. But in 2001 I asked to be removed from the active member list and officially retire. I had moved to the United States a year earlier. My company was in the Internet Business and we know what happened in 2001, starting already at the end of 2000. The DOT.COM crash of course. I was mentally prepared to pack up again to return to Germany because of another round of lay-offs that shock many businesses in the industry, including the company I worked for via a work-visa bound to my employment contract with this company.

The company had to think fast and act even faster to change focus and strategy in order to survive.

A Lot of Changes With Lasting Impact


The few people left to do the work had to put in over time, a lot. I learned a lot during this time, which also lead to me becoming self employed in 2007, leaving my former visa and green card sponsor in good terms, still maintaining personal contacts with its owners and management. The company is doing good today, which is good. I also got the time to do something else for myself again and was for the first time thinking about the old days of bulletin boards and text art again. windows 95 was replaced by Windows 98, which were both pretty much compatible still with the old fashioned MS DOS operating system. By the time I looked back again, Windows 2000 came and went and Windows XP and Windows 2003 Servers were the OS that dominated the PC market. Many of the old stuff did not even run on the machines anymore. MS DOS was virtually gone with some fragments of it left here and there. At was at this time when I started to worry about the legacy of SAC and my own work as ASCII/ANSI artist. Displaying an ANSI required already special software that did not come with the OS anymore.

Here are some posts and comments from the Time before I became involved with SAC again, starting with nice story that describes how the old stuff (scene, BBS, ANSI art) was ultimately responsible for other things that became relevant for my life, but had nothing to do with my scene past per se.

Feb, 11 2006 - How things happen such as this Blog

Launch of RoySAC.com


The old version of Cumbrowski.com had multiple subjects and content for each of those subjects grew, the family part, the professional part and the oldskool scene part. So I decided in 2006 to create three web sites out of the one to keep things separated. The result was the move from Cumbrowski.com to its own domain, just for the old scene stuff.  May 21, 2006 - Site Cleanup and Re-Structure and a New Site launch
Aug 19, 2006 Move to RoySAC.com - Official Re-Launch of RoySAC.com


Meanwhile


I had contact with “Idiana” (the girlfriend of Ferrex, not an active artist, but keeping things together and do Ferrex job) and was able to gather some more information. I even had a Wiki up for a short period of time to gather more information, but I remained the only contributor despite the promises that were made by others
to do something as well.

May 2007 - I got contacted by “Xeek” regarding the domain “SuperiorArtCreations.com”, which was just about to expire. Transferred the domain. He also sent me a ZIP with some Site Layout Ideas in a early stage

Expansion of SAC Section at RoySAC.com Began


To see how things progressed, check out the Web Archive (Unfortunately it only has data  since 11-2007, but you can see the difference between the site in November compared to the expanded version a month later.

Aug 01, 2007 - Major Site Expansion and New SAC Section with Art Packs Page
Aug 31, 2007 - Welcome to the ASCII Art Videos

I started Capturing SAC Cracktros and Intros and made them available on YouTube mainly and some also at other video sharing web sites. I created a special account on YouTube called “sacreleases”. The account started out with SAC related content only, but was then expanded, since I only made little progress on the few remaining SAC productions that I was unable to capture on video.

I created special play lists for the SAC stuff though, to keep it separate from the other videos


Oct 15, 2007 - It Was Time Again For A Clean-Up


Dec 3, 2007 - Web Archive After Phase 1 - SAC Updates and Site Content Additions

Getting the SAC Pack Content Online


Major Work began in December 2008. Multiple Posts 12-2008 and 01-2009

Dec 29, 2008 - Interesting SAC Art Packs Statistics, Figures and Downloads
Dec 39, 2008 - Interesting SAC Art Packs Statistics, Figures and Downloads - Part II
Jan 18, 2009 - First ASCII Art Piece of Mine in Ages

Before I had the stuff up on my website I already put up many of it on sites like Flickr, YouTube and others.
I did that with stuff that I processed throughout the year. I created Flickr Sets with converted ANSI/ASCII and VGA art from the packs as early as January 2009. I also uploaded converted content to my file share account at Mediafire.com where people could download the content in packages and collection format.

My Flickr.com Collection for SAC artwork

Side Project - The SAC All Time Member List. Decision Made to post what I had so far publicly in the hope that SAC members would respond and provide info on outstanding and open questions. I maintained the list via Google Docs and Spreadsheets  and even gave several SAC members with whom I was able to get in touch with access to the document for collaborative editing. Nobody ever did a single edit.

Apr 27, 2009 - The SAC – Superior Art Creations All-Time Member List Project Update

Almost One Year of Work Bears Finally Fruits


1. Begin Oct 2009, Cracktro Browse
    Oct 2, 2009 - SAC Crack Intros and BBS’tros Collection Finally Live on RoySAC.com

2. End Oct 2009 SAC Pack Browse (Some Long Weekends for the last stretch and get the packs finally up)
    Oct 15, 2009 - SAC Art Packs Now Accessible Via Web Browser Online

Final Words


I knew that a SAC channel was kept up on IRC and also spend a little bit time there now and then. Never for extended periods of time, because I wasted too much time on IRC already in the many years before. There was not much going on there, but somebody was always there, not a SAC member but somebody who was not a bot. That's also the reason why I referred people time and again to the channel and also others like #ACID to try to find an active artist who is willing to take requests for artwork.

At the same time, i made myself accessible and reachable. A simple search in any of the major search engines for “Superior Art Creations”, “Roy/SAC” or even “ANSI Art” would have lead anybody who was looking for me or information about SAC right here and to all the stuff that I did over the years. I expanded my outreach beyond the steadily growing web site here at RoySAC.com even further with creating a MySpace page for Roy and a MySpace group dedicated to ANSI Art. I started a text art group on Google Groups, started a Facebook group for Superior Art Creations, a YouTube channel, Flickr collection and sets, Picasa Albums. I updated content at Pouet and made content available for backup at my file share account at Mediafire.com and on my web site.

The only place where I did not publish was on Warez FTP Servers and on IRC. While the FTP option was a problem due to the lack of access, it had just like IRC one major flaw, it only lasts for a very short period of time and is  then gone for ever into oblivion and camping out there like a bum was out of the question, but I did not feel it necessary. Even the most reactionary scener from the old days could not forever ignore the developments and changes around him and stuck to only use the Internet Services FTP, IRC and EMAIL, ignoring the WEB entirely. One search in Google and everything would be right in their face. What they decide to do with it is a quite different story, but ignoring it was virtually impossible.

Whenever I encountered another former SAC member at any of those places or got contacted via my email address at GMX.DE, which was my scener email address since 1995 already and was continuously working with only a couple months interruption in 2009, I pointed to what I did and what I wanted to do, asking for their help and opinions. I also noted contact information in the non-public version of the SAC member list. Emails, Web Sites, Facebook Profiles, Phone Numbers, Real Names etc. Nothing happened suddenly and certainly not secretly either. At stake was the legacy of a group that I helped founding and growing for 7 years and a scene I was part of for 9 years of my life. I could not allow this to slip away into the darkness and become lost forever. I was not just talking about doing something, but went ahead and did it. How good of a job I did might be debatable, but out of the question should be the fact that doing something is indefinitely better than doing nothing at all.

During all this time I stated over and over again, that I consider the stuff I did for SAC on the Web to be only “preliminary” until a better solution is found, involving other SAC members to build a final and official legacy for the group together. It’s not about me, it’s about us. SAC is a result of a joint effort by over 100 individuals over a period of more than a decade of work and dedication and only another joined effort can secure the legacy of it eventually. I hope my efforts contribute to this effort, but they should not be the end of it.

I appreciate the work of others who are driven by very similar motives like Lord Scarlet of Sixteen Colors, Ben Garret of Defacto2.net, Jason Scott of Textfiles.com (and director of the BBS Documentary DVD), RaD Man of ACiD (Dark Domain DVD and public speaker about the subject), the folks at Blocktronics and the many others like them or supporting those efforts. See my links section for more scene preservation efforts and more.

I will continue with my efforts regardless of what happened and hope that others will also start helping to preserve a legacy that became part of the history for all of us and should be worth remembering, even after our deaths long time in the future.

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC in 2010

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Superior Art Creations Scene Art Pack Volume 36-SAC?!

A few days before new year, Desolation Angel contacted me via Facebook and told me that Scour is trying to put a new SAC art pack together for the December 31, 2009. I was delighted about this idea after so many years and sent Scour an email (which I also got from DA) to send him stuff that I created over the years to be added to the pack and the request to send me the pack file as soon as possible that I could convert its content and make it ready for browsing on my web site like I did for all the other 35 art packs last year.

I did not receive a response and became worried that he did not get my message on time.

The December 31, 2009 passed and I still did not hear back from Scour, so I told DA and asked, if he heard from him and knows if a SAC pack was released or not. He gave me an alternative email address and sent another message to that one. He also had not heard from Scour, nor got a download link to the pack. Meanwhile Maktone contacted me via FB also, asking me, if I got a link to download the new art pack.

Finally Scour responded to my last email on January 6, 2010 without saying anything, but 2 links to download the SAC pack release. That was it. I downloaded the archive and found to my disappointment that my stuff was not included. I believed that my emails to the first address did not get to Scour on time for the release at first, but then I read the text in the SAC.NFO file of the release and was shocked and very disappointed.

I was thinking how to respond to this and decided to write a clear and friendly email back to Scour and Barium, who wrote the content of the NFO and then also release my response publicly. Below is my response from January 9, 2010. The words in red color are citations of Scour and Barium from the NFO file, which I also included in its entirely below and should be read first to better understand my own responses to it.

Again, I am very disappointed and unnecessary, but unfortunately also unavoidable. What happened could not be ignored by me and left out in the open without a statement on my part.   

Update February 2010: Please also read my follow up posts about the issue: A Tale about an Art Group Called Superior Art Creations and more important SAC – Misunderstandings Cleared and Differences Settled.

Here is the entire NFO file and it’s wording from SAC Pack #36 from December 31, 2009

                    ▀ ▄   ▄▄             ▄
▀▓▀ ▓▓██ ▀█▄ ▐
▐ ▀▀ ▓▓▄██████▀▀▀██████▐▄▄▄
▐ ▀▄▄▄████████▐▀▄■ ▀▐█████████▄▀
▐ ▀█████████ ▓░ ░░████████▀ S A C
█ ▐█████████▄▀ ▄ .▄████████▌ ▄
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▄ ▀ ▄▀ ▄▓▀▀ ▄▄███▓▓▀▀░ ▐ ░▀▀████▄▄░ ▓████░ ▀ ▐████▌ ▓▄ ▀▓▄
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ferrex ▓ ▐▓██▓▀ ▄ ▄▓██████ ▒██████████ ▄░ ▀
▄ ▄ ▀▓██▄▄ ▀▓▀ ▀ ███████▓ ▓ ░█████▐████ ▄ ▀█▓▄▄▄ ▄▄
▀▓▀ ▀▀▓▓██▄▄▄ █████▓ ▄ █████▐████ ▀███████▓▓ ██▓▓
▄▄ ░▄▄▄▀ ░▀▀▓██▓▄ █████▒ █▄ █████▐████ ▐█▓▀█████ ▀▀
▓▓██ ▓███▓ ░ ▄▓ ▒████▓█████░ ▐█▌ █████▐████░ ▄▓▀ █████ ▄
▀▀ ▄ █████ ░▓██▒ ░██████████ ▐█▓ █████ ▓███▒ ▓█ ▄▓▄█████ ▀▄ ▀▓▀
▄█ █████░ ███▓▒ ████▌█████ ██▌ ░█████ ▒███▓ ▀▄ ▀ ████▓ ░█▄
▄▓██▓ ████▒ ███▓ ▐███▓ █████ ▓▓█▄▀█████ ░████▌ ▐████▌░▓██▓▄
░▄██████░ ████▓░ ▒▀ ▄██▓▀ █████ ▓█▄ ▄▓▓▓▓ ▒███▓ ▀▄▄▄▓██▓▀ ▓██████▄
▐▓███ ███▓▄ ▀▀▀▀ ▄▄▄▄██▓▀▀ ▄▓▓▄ ░▀▀▒▒▒▒▀ ░███▓▄▄ ▀▀▀░ ▄███▀ ████▀
▀▓██▄ ▀████▄▄██▓▓▀▀▀ ░ ▄▓▄ ▀▀ ░ ░▐▀▀▓█████████▀ ▄███▀▌
▀███▄▌ ▀▀▀▀▌ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▐▄▄███▀ ▄▄██▄
░▄▄ ▐▀███▄░ ▌ ▓███▓▀ ▄██▓▀███
▄████▓▄ ███▓▌ ▄▌ S U P E R I O R A R T C R E A T I O N S ▀▀▓████▀ ▄█▀
▓██ ▀██████▀ 1 9 9 4 – 2 0 1 0 ▄▓▄ ░▀▀ ▄▀▀
▀▓▄ ▀▓▓▀ ▄▓▄ ▀ ▄░
▐▀▀▄ ░ ▀ ░░ ░
▄ ▓ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄ ▓▓ ▄▄▄ ▄▄ ▄▄██ ▄▄▄▄ ▓ ▄
▀▄▄ █▓▒░░░ ░ ██▄▄█▀ ██▄▄█▀ ██▄▄▄█ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▄█ ░ ░░░▒▓█ ▄▄▀
▀█▓▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ██ ▄▄▄ ██ ██ ▀█▄▄▄▄▄ ▀▄ ▀█▄▄█▀ ▀█▄▄██ ▀█▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄██▀
▐█ █▌
▄██ And once again Lazarus has dug himself out of his hole to ██▄
▀ █▓ show you guys how it's done. We've seen some random act– ▓█ ▀
██ ivity on the artscene, but whatever. Nothing to be proud ██
██ about. Stop being such fucking rippers, you know who you are ██
██ ... ██
▄ ██ *Cough cough* CR...OMG, look! Another fx sprouts onto the ██ ▄
▐▌ ██ asciiscene shamelessly! Perhaps we should have included the ██ ▐▌
▀▄██ tutorial he wrote... You seem to need it. ██▄▀
▐██ ██▌
▀▄██ On a completely different note, Roy for some reason thinks ██▄▀
▐▓▓ this is still his group... Well, fuck that, go back to your ▓▓▌
██ retarded blog and write about canadian circus. Thanks for ██
▐██ your subs, but no thanks. We've gotta keep up some standards ██▌
▓██ you know. There's another german founded three letter acron– ██▓
▐▌██ ym group that'd fit you like a glove. ██▐▌
█ ██ ██ █
▐▌ ██ Anyways, why the fuck haven't we released an artpack in 2.5 ██ ▐▌
█ ██ years? Barium, got an answer? ██ █
▐▌ ██ ██ ▐▌
▀▄ ██ Yeah, not really. I guess we're only humans with lusts and ██ ▄▀
██ several TBs of porn. ██
██ ██
██ Well there you have it folks, the Almighty SAC has returned ██
██ from its slumber to conquer and rule with an iron fist. ██
██ ██
██ I say, from this day forward you will obey. The age of indi– ██
██ vidualism in the artscene is over. Conform or perish. ██
██ ██
██ That's it! Like that black guy who turned white, then his ██
██ face fell in, Superior Art Creations Scene Art Pack Vol. 36 ██
██ is finally here for your viewing pleasure, so enjoy! Or else ██
██ we'll have Roy draw your next req. ██
██ ██
██ –Barium/Scour (we joint everything else, why not Sac.nfo?) ██
██ ██
██ For this production S.P.E.C.T.R.E. have decided to activate ██
██ the following sleeper agents: ██
██ ██
██ Asphyx, Barium, Creature of Hell, Crome, Desolation Angel, ██
██ Dipswitch, Don Rapello, Hkultra, Maktone, Nerv, & Scour. ██
██ ██
██ Alas we have recruited some unusually enthusiastic talent ██
██ to fill our ranks in the past few months due to the invent– ██
██ ion of remote brainwashing technology. Introducing the fut– ██
██ ure of our beloved artscene: ██
██ ██
██ Elle, oPi, pOLe, & Sephiroth. Watch out, you might be next! ██
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█ ▀ ▀█▓▄▄ You know the deal.. #sac @ EFNET ██
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▀█ AGAINST THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE COMPUTERSCENE ▄▀
▀▄ JUST DO IT. ..FOR FUN THAT IS. ▄▀

– <3 12/31/09 E> –



Hi Scour, and Barium (please forward to Jesper, I don't have his email)

Thanks for the download links.

I started a nice email back to you, but then read the NFO file of the SAC pack release. I am not sure, if I am glad that I did not send my response first already or not.

Anyhow, since I did not send it yet and read the NFO, I could not send it anymore, so I have to say sorry, but the Thanks at the beginning of this email will be the only nice words that you are going to hear from me.

I have no intention to start a flame-bullshit-war with you or Barium. I am too old for that shit and so should you too actually.

I will try to express myself as clear as possible.

"On a completely different note, Roy for some reason thinks  this is still his group... "

I am not just thinking this, it is actually true, now more than ever, especially after it retired itself about 2.5 years ago. At that moment you lost all right to it and even the remote chance to legitimize what you just did now.

Even more so, you take into account what happened between then and the release of your art pack a few days ago.

You had no right to revive the group and explicitly exclude the senior founders, long time leader, major contributor and only one who gave a damn to bring it up at the beginning and to preserve its legacy when it fell apart in 2007.

I also gave this group the name and abbreviation, so go and found yourself another group on your own where you can do with whatever you like. You guys did not make SAC to what it was, you were merely benefiting from it when you joined it while Ferrex had the leadership role, which I handed to him in 2000 2001 (with some regrets I might add).

"Well, fuck that, go back to your retarded blog and write about canadian circus."

Mhh.. an artist who does not appreciate Cirque du Soleil, interesting. I would never had though that to be possible.

My blog is not just about CDS btw. Some of it should even be of value and interest to you (not sure who to direct this to, you Scour or Barium)

I will leave it at that. I cannot please everyone, I know, so if you don't like it, don't read it. There are millions of other blogs and web sites to spend time on.

"Thanks for your subs, but no thanks. "

So you got my stuff on time!

"We've gotta keep up some standards you know. "

Oho... You are obviously very full of yourself. That's arrogance and something that I don't want to seen associated with SAC. I heard that Ferrex was going on that trip after I was gone and I can tell you that it did not make me very happy.

People made their own judgment already years ago when non of you two were even around and also today. ... and btw. if you would know a little bit more about SAC, then you would also know who sets the standards and what those are.

"There's another german founded three letter acronym group that'd fit you like a glove."

I don't know who you are referring, but I believe that this is the attempt to insult me or something like that.

The only other art groups in Germany that were around when or after SAC was founded and active were cRO and BM.

I am sure that you did not refer to cRO, right?

I hope that I expressed myself clear enough.

I will put the new pack on the web site, but not as an official pack. A blog post will also follow and some other stuff that you might find out yourself sooner or later.

"No official homepage, no matter what one claims."

Well, SUPERIORARTCREATIONS.COM seems to be the final home for the group now after all. Well, it became that already when you abandoned it in 2007 and the domain got almost dropped, if XEEK would not have contacted me and take it over as soon as I could.

"You know the deal.. #sac @ EFNET"

I won't force you to close the channel on EfNet. I was kind of glad that It was still there, although I am not hanging out on IRC anymore.

However, you know what you have to do. I also don't mind, if you want the channel up for folks to hang out there and chat about art, just start another channel for your own new group for your official group stuff. You might even use #SAC to recruit artists to your own group, as long as SAC is not really active. I sent folks there myself, because I knew that somebody could find artists there for requests, even if it wasn't a current or former SAC member. Basically don't use the channel to discredit SAC, its origins, roots and what it stand and still stands for.

Happy New Year anyway. It could have been a happy start for all of us instead, but this was obviously not meant to happen unfortunately.

Oops, I lied! I said that the thanks at the beginning of the email would be the only kind words in this email. Well, I can forgive myself for this lie. I never had anything against you and don't know where your hatred against me comes from.

I am not happy about it and doubt that you will tell me the reasons for it, thus I cannot do much about it either, am I?

Regards,

Carsten aka Roy/SAC


Another quote from the NFO file, which I did not include in my email, but would like to comment on as well.



..to conquer and rule with an iron fist.


I say from this day forward you will obey. The age of individualism is over. Conform or Perish.


What do we have here? Some little Fascists or what? Sorry, but Nazis are not permitted in my art group.  Go and crawl back under the rock where you came from. Perish!


Can you believe this? Gosh, are we not too old for this chicken-sh*t ? Some people should know better than this.


Regards,


Carsten aka Roy/SAC


Co-Founder and Leader of SAC – Superior Art Creations
1994 – 2001, 2007-…


PS. Regardless if I disapprove of the NFO file and how this release was conducted, here is the download link to the entire pack anyway, because it includes a lot of nice old-skool art by various respected artists and musicians of the scene and I also do not consider this whole thing to be something between me and the whole rest of SAC or what is left of it. I actually would be even more disappointed, if none of the members, especially the ones who have seniority, speak up themselves to express their thoughts and opinions regarding this matter.


Update February 2010: The art pack can also browsed on my web site: Browse SAC Pack #36 Online!